Printing device



April 21, 1942. 1". c. WELTMER ET AL- PRINTING DEVICE Filed May 6, 1940 mnm'iuium 60 6] d n a r m m w C Q a w w. WWW Z 2 Patented 21, 1942 PRINTING DEVICE Tracy C. Weltmer, Kansas City, Mo., and Charles J. Regan, Omaha, Nebr., assignors to Interstate Bakeries Corporation, Kansas City, Mo., a

corporation of Delaware Application May 6,1940, Serial No. 333,520

2 Claims. (01, 101-35) This invention relatesto a printing device for imprinting upon the Vertical fiace of a relatively moving article such as, for example, a loaf of bread as it comes in a procession of such loaves from a, conventional bread-wrapping machine, and aims to providea simple and economical unitary device which can be associated with a con ventional bread wrapping machine.

Devices now in use for marking wrapped loaves of bread do so onlyon horizontal faces of the wrapped loaves, which means that when the loaves are stacked on a counter or display rack in a retail store, for example, no means of identification, which may be placed upon the loaves after they are wrapped, appears on the ends of the loaves; which are the part of the loaf generally most v'mible to the customer.

It is well known also that loaves of bread when wrapped upon the conventional bread-wrapping machines have the wrapper folded upon the ends of the loaves so that it is not readily feasible to have displaycharacters printed on the wrapper before the wrapping process and to appear upon the end of the loaf. a

The present invention, which enables printing uponthe wrapped loaf atits ends, permits of display characters to be imprinted across the entire end of the loaf regardless of thefolds in the wrapper at this end, and at the same time renders thoinsignia readily visible on the ends of the loaves when stacked,

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description, taken together with the accompanying drawing, in which Figure l is a view, somewhat diagrammatic, of

a procession of loaves emerging from a wrapping machine with which the device of the present invention is shown associated; Figure 2 is an enlarged horizontal section taken on the line 22 of Figure 1; and

'Figure 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 3 3 of Figure 2.

In the illustrative construction shown in the platform M by the pressure of the loaves behind emerging from the wrapping-machine on the conveyor belt. I Q

As will be understood, and as shown in the drawing, the row of loaves ll emerge from the.

wrapping machine with one oftheir long sides ends I5 aligned in contact with the guide plate I3.

In accordance with the present invention, somewhere in the path of movement of the loaves while they are still positively maintained in the row as by guide-plates I3, and in this instance atthe ends of the guide-plates l3, printingrde- Vices are located, one of which, [6, is illustrated in the annexed drawing; it being understood that there are desirably two such devices upon O posite sides ofthe loaf row. g

In the present embodiment, theprinting device lt is inthe form of a casing 16a havinga vertical wall I! which here forms a continuation of the guide-plate I3 and in contact with which the ends-I5 of the loaves l I move in a horizontal plane. To somewhat narrow the path of movement of the loaves at this point, the face of the wall I1, contacting the loaf end, may have a pair of parallel longitudinal ribs l8 which minimize lateral movement of the loaves in their forward progress.

Desirably between the ribs l8, the wall I! is apertured as by a horizontally elongated slot l9 and from this slot there projects into the path of the loaves, to contact with their ends, a portion of the periphery of the printing roller 20 having,

in this instance, raised characters 21 thereon which may make up the word Fresh, The

roller 20 is mounted on a vertical aXis'22 within the casing Ilia as by having the reduced end 23 of its hub 23a journaled in a bracket supported casing Isa. The other and lower hub 21, of the roller 20 is here shown supported on a collar 28 resting rotatively on a boss 29 formed integrally with the lower wall 3|] of the casing. The hub 21 may be recessed noncircularly to snuglyad mit the non-circular key end 3| of a stub-shaft32 with whichthe collar 28 is rigid. "A lower collar 33 may be fixed on the stub-shaft 32, as by a setscrew 34 to prevent axial movement of the stubshaft in the casing wall.

Offset from the printing roller 20, but so that their peripheries are in contact, is an inking roller 35, the periphery 36 of which is faced with a porous resilient material, for example, such as sponge rubber. As here shown, the inking roller .for provided with aclosure cap 55.

is of hollow drum-like form comprising two hubbed plates 31 and 38. The lower plate 38, in this instance, has projecting upwardly therefrom a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart interiorly threaded posts 39 which receive screwbolts 40 entering through the other plate 31 and thus providing a hollow interior 4! into which the inky fluid is admitted, to seep through the porous periphery 36 into contact with the periphery 2| of the printing roller 20.

The hub of the lower plate 38 of the ink roller 35 may have a reduced end 42 which is journaled in an integral boss 43 on the lower wall 30 of the casing IBa and the upper plate 31 of the inking roller 35 similarly has a reduced end 44 which is journaled in a bracket 45 supported on the wall 26 of the casing 16a, as by a screw-bolt 46 similarly to the bracket for the printing roller 20.

Spaced integral lugs 4'l4l for the bracket 24 and 48-48 for the bracket 45, receiving the brackets snugly therebetween respectively, guard against rotative movement of the brackets on the screw-bolts.

To admit ink into the interior of the inking roller 35, the upper hub 44 of the inking roller is extended above its bearing 45 and is orificed as at 49 coincident and concentric with the axis of the inking roller. In the upper horizontal wall 58 of the casing Ifia there is shown a drip hole 5| into which is led the free end 52 of a flexible hose 53 which end 52 is in alignment with the passage 49 formed in the tube-like hub 44 and which hose 53 is in communication with the ink reservoir 54 mounted on the upper wall of the casing Ilia. This upper wall 50 of the casing may be in the form of a cover for the casing with which cover the ink reservoir 54 is integral. The ink material may be deposited in the reservoir as through a mouth 55 there- A discharge control valve 51 may be inserted in the pipe 53. The ink material may desirably comprise a waxy constituent and a color constituent formed into a mixed liquid and maintained at a substantially high temperature by means of a heating element 58 inserted into the ink reservoir 54 and connected with a suitable source of electric current as by wires 59, as is well known in the art. To rotate the printing roller 20, the stub-shaft 32 may have keyed thereto as at 50 a worm whee] 6| meshing with a worm 62 on'a drive shaft 63, which, by any suitable co-ordination with the mechanism of the bread-wrapping machine ID, will cause the printing roller 20 to rotate at the same speed as the movement of the loaves H.

The arcuate length of the word Fresh, as here illustrated, on the printing roller 20 is advantageously such that when the word is printed on the ends of the loaves, as here described, by contact of the end of each loaf with the rotating printing roller 25 as it passes thereby, the letters of the word imprinted extend substantially across the entire end of the loaf regardless of the folds of the wrapper, such as 64, which may occur intermedially of the word. In other words, both the wrapper and the loaf itself have some resilience and by compressing the loaf slightly endwise as at 55 as it passes between a pair of oppositely disposed printing rollers 20, it has been found that the roller will print, substantially uniformly, both where the folds of the wrapper do not occur and where they do occur, as best shown in Fig. 1. For this purpose it has been found that the ribs l8 may project say an eighth of an inch beyond the guide-plates [3 into the path of the loaves, and the periphery of the printing roller 25 may desirably project another one-quarter of an inch beyond the ribs [8.

The printing device 16, including the casing Ilia, may be mounted, for example, on the discharge table l4 as by a depending mounting portion 66 of the wall ll through which securing bolts 61 pass into the table. The table may also carry, by any suitable attachment means, a bearing bracket 68 extending downwardly and laterally outwardly therefrom, for the shaft 63.

Manifestly, the invention is not limited to details of construction shown for purposes of exemplification, and such changes may be made as fall within the scope of the following claims without departing from the invention,

What is claimed is:

1. In a device of the class described, an inking roller comprising a pair of vertically spaced parallel plates, interiorly threaded posts spaced at intervals circumferentially of and between said plates, means securing the plates to the posts, a liquid porous annulus secured about said posts and the peripheries of said plates, an integral solid hub on the lower of said plates providing a lower journal therefor, and a hollow hub on the upper plate providing both an upper journal therefor and an ink receiving passage into the space between said plates and within said annulus.

2. In a unitary printing device of the class described embodying a casing having a vertical wall and two horizontal walls, one of said horizontal walls being removable and forming a cover for the casing, a printing roller rotatably mounted on a vertical axis within the casing, and an inking roller also mounted on a vertical axis within the casing in peripheral engagement with said printing roller, that improvement therein comprising bearing members carried on the vertical wall and lower horizontal wall respectively within the casing for mounting said rollers respectively, the inking roller including a pair of vertically spaced apart parallel plates, the upper of said plates having a hub extending above its bearings in which it is journalled and said hub being upwardly openly orificed coincident with its axis to provide an uncovered ink passage therethrough, detachable spacing means between the plates spaced at intervals circumferentially of and between said plates, a liquid porous annulus secured about said spacing means, an ink reservoir carried on the said cover and removable therewith, an aperture in said cover coincident with said passage, and a drip pipe communicating with said reservoir and entering said aperture in alignment with said passage for conveying ink by gravity through said open passage in said hub.

TRACY C. WEL'I'MER. CHARLES J. REGAN. 

